APIs enable data owners to make their data available to others. Increased use of smartphones, apps and cloud-based services is resulting in increased need to develop APIs. APIs are typically custom-built and, as such, are time-consuming and expensive to design and develop, requiring developers with specialist skills not only to construct them but also to maintain them. The likelihood of APIs yielding a return on investment is also difficult for data owners to evaluate, which makes decisions on whether to develop them difficult. These obstacles to development result in many data owners not making their data available to others via APIs, missing potential revenue streams and also preventing multiple business opportunities for potential users of the data.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a straightforward way of enabling data owners to make their data available to others that does not require specialist technical software skills to operate.